


bellum, non amant

by king_or_2_queens



Series: a fabella de violaceus [4]
Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Action, Again, Arguing, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Emotional Hurt, Emotionally Repressed, Fights, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I know, Karma's a bitch, Kissing, M/M, Making Up, Minor Violence, Requited Love, Swearing, Unrequited Love, Unresolved Sexual Tension, as usual, bad Latin, duh - Freeform, everyone else is kinda irrelevant tbh, gays, i guess, i suck, just in case, not-so-oblivious nagisa, oblivious nagisa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2018-12-05 18:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11583864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/king_or_2_queens/pseuds/king_or_2_queens
Summary: I don’t know what I would do without you, Nagisa had admitted so many days, hours, minutes before this moment.Well,Karma thought caustically,it seems to me like you did just fucking fine.or, a closer look inside Karma's head during the schism arc.





	1. antebellum

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm back at it again with that Karunagi angst. I just can't help myself. And the long!fic I'm working on is taking foreverrrr, so I figured this might be something to gnaw on while I finish up another chapter or two and start posting. 
> 
> I apologize again for my bastardization of Latin and my copious lifting of quotes from chapters 142 and 143. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Karma and Nagisa. I do not own Koro-sensei. I do not own Terasaka (thank Glob). I do not own the plot. I do not own the setting, or the characters, or the manga, or the anime. This is all thanks to the true wisdom of Matsui-sensei. 
> 
> Thanks for everything, Matsui-sensei.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> antebellum: before the war

_**a story in violet:** war, not love_

* * *

 

The very moment that Nagisa asked everyone to meet him in the woods after school that day, Karma knew his intentions.

It was obvious - the twisted anguish on Nagisa’s face when Koro-sensei revealed his past, the way he had wrung his hands so nervously while making his request, and how he was so careful to make sure that Karasuma and that bitch didn’t know about it - he clearly wanted to suggest saving Koro-sensei.

At the beginning of the break, Karma had been unsure of where Nagisa's head was. But as the days progressed and Nagisa's responses to Karma’s proposed assassination plans had grown less frequent and more distant, Karma became more and more certain that, after school started back up again, Nagisa would say exactly what Karma didn’t want to hear.

 **To:** Nagisa Shiota

 **Subject:** good night

_See u in class tomorrow_

_Koro-sensei had better watch out :P_

**Sent 21:45**

**From:** Nagisa Shiota

 **Subject:** Re: good night

_See you then._

**Received 21:47**

The curt message last night, so different from Nagisa’s usual playful and slightly dry banter, had been the final nail in the proverbial coffin, and Karma had launched his phone at the nearest wall in a fit of irrational rage when the message from Nagisa had come through.

Still, Karma trudged down the hill like everyone else and silently joined the loose ring that Class 3-E had formed around Nagisa. Karma shoved his hands in his pockets and acted as though he didn’t notice when Nagisa tried to catch his gaze, keeping a tight leash on his irritation.

“What's up, Nagisa?” Terasaka asked, his voice almost entirely devoid of its usual belligerence. Everyone had been unsurprisingly quiet today in class, their first day seeing Koro-sensei after _that_ day. “It’s weird for you to call us all out here like this.”

Nagisa swallowed visibly and glanced quickly between Terasaka and his own slightly muddied shoes before working up the nerve to respond. “I’m sorry, but...I have something to propose to you all.”

He paused again, clearly trying to think of the best way to phrase his idea.

Hara said eventually, “What? Just say it,” with that slightly muted tone to her voice that everyone seemed to have adopted now.

Nagisa looked down at the ground and sighed, clearly reluctant to speak. Finally, he mumbled, “I...don’t know if this would even be possible, but…” Here, he paused and seemed to gain courage. “I want to search for a way to save Koro-sensei’s life,” he said decisively.

Karma rolled his eyes, completely unsurprised, but his classmates seemed floored. A tense silence followed Nagisa’s bold words.

Eventually, Mimura piped up, “Save...him? You mean, trying to find a way so that he doesn’t explode in March?”

Okano seemed a bit hopeful, but reluctant as she asked, “ _Is_ there really a way?”

 _No,_ Karma thought scornfully. _The teacher we’re all so fond of has to die. There’s no way around it, and no use in getting your hopes up_. But he bit his tongue, waiting to see what the rest of the class would say.

“C-clearly there’s no way right now,” Nagisa said. “But...after hearing about his past, I can’t see him as a target like I did up to this point. And I think that all of you feel the same!”

 _Throwing away the entire school year just like that?_ Karma said to himself. _Oh, Nagisa, you idiot. You can’t believe that the whole class would go along with that._

But Nagisa was gaining steam. “And the fact that Earth will explode in March? That isn’t what Koro-sensei wants!” he practically shouted. “He isn’t that different from us, after all! Like us, he failed, regretted, and was rebirthed. He taught us _so much_ ,” he continued, voice sounding a bit thick. “So we don’t have to fail anymore.

“Most importantly, I just like hanging out with him! It’s perfectly natural to want to help a teacher like him, not kill him,” he trailed off, words rough with emotion.

“I agree!” Kurahashi shouted joyfully. “I want to keep learning more about Koro-sensei _and_ other living things!”

Kataoka said quietly, but with certainty, as with everything she did, “I was thinking of saying it if you didn’t, Nagisa-kun. After all, I want to repay Koro-sensei.”

Nagisa smiled at them, surprised but happy.

Hara, Sugino, and Fuwa spoke out as well, preaching their support for the idea. Soon, many members of the class had gathered around Nagisa, grinning and praising him. Nagisa slumped forward in relief, but Karma clicked his tongue, unseen.

“Sorry to ruin your party,” Nakamura snapped, annoyed. “But I’m against this.”

_Shocker._

Nagisa’s face was stricken.

“Our bonds are the ones between an assassin and a target,” Nakamura said firmly. “That’s what he told us from the beginning. And those bonds that we formed are really important to me. That’s why I _have_ to kill him.”

“Nakamura-san…” Nagisa said, clearly disappointed.

But obviously, she wasn’t the only one with this point of view.

Terasaka, annoyingly loud as usual, barked, “You’re telling us to help him. But how will you do it in practice? It would be different if we knew how that shitty octopus was made, but even both Okuda and Takebayashi’s knowledge are college-level at best!”

Nagisa tried to argue back, but Terasaka’s minions (Karma could barely remember their names on a good day) made good points, causing all of their classmates to look a bit more considerate and a lot more nervous.

“B-but still!” Nagisa cried desperately. “You can’t be sure that it would be useless - “

_Fuck this._

“Talented people often have the wrong impression that things will go their way,” Karma said acidically.

Nagisa swallowed and turned his way, eyes wide with apprehension.

“Hey, Nagisa-kun,” he said, smirking. “Aren’t you getting too cocky lately?”

Nagisa stammered, trying to come up with a response, but he was clearly caught too off-guard. Karma took advantage of this, of course.

“You’re the best assassin in the class,” Karma admitted as he moved away from the tree he’d been leaning on. “And yet, you’re the one suggesting that we give up on the assassination. It’s completely inconsiderate to the talentless ones who are desperately doing their best in every assassination attempt.”

Against his will, Karma thought of the way that Nagisa had always felt _just_ out of his grasp. Untouchable, but so open. Terrifying, but so gentle. Beautiful, but so _deadly._

“It’s like a popular girl saying to all of her ugly friends,” Karma continued, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice. “‘We should stop looking for men so desperately...don’t you agree?’”

Nagisa flinched at this. “I-I didn’t mean it like that! And besides, Karma-kun, you’re way better than me at assassination.”

Anger flared in Karma’s chest. _Here I am, admitting my weakness, and he’s been too blind to see it all of this time._ But being honest with himself, Karma knew that he was mostly just...disappointed.

“You saying that just makes me even more angry,” Karma said, rubbing the back of his neck in annoyance. He didn’t like how public this was. He didn’t like fighting with Nagisa at all, but he knew that this was a long time coming. And he knew that he couldn’t stop it. “Could it be that you really just...don’t care to understand the feelings of the weakest people around you?”

“You’re wrong!” Nagisa shouted, frustrated. “It’s not like that; my feelings are more honest than that! Do you hate Koro-sensei, Karma-kun? We went to the movies together, and you enjoyed time with him, right?”

Karma couldn’t help himself (he never could when it came to Nagisa); he retaliated with even more fury, stepping forward into Nagisa’s space. “That’s what _I’m_ telling _you!_ That octopus did his best every day, so that even _worthless people_ like you would like his lessons and come to class!”

At this point, their classmates were muttering amongst themselves, but Karma plowed on. “If we dull our bloodlust, this assassination class will _fall apart!”_ It was too late to go back now. He knew it would end badly, but he couldn’t make himself shut up. “You can’t even understand his hard work, can you? Are you a little kid in your head as well as in your appearance?”

Nagisa’s eyes widened to the size of saucers, but Karma couldn’t see past the red haze filling his vision. This wasn’t his friend he was looking at - it was a cockroach. Something to be crushed underfoot. _This_ was how he should have been looking at Nagisa all of these years.

Nagisa pressed his lips together, clearly trying to hold something back. _Oh, too little, too fucking late!_

“Oh?” Karma said, silently creaming condescension with the tilt of his neck and the twist of his lips. “What’s that look in your eyes? A little pussy like you wants to oppose a real human?”

Nagisa didn’t even twitch, though the rest of the class certainly did. Several gasps rang out around the clearing. Instead, he mumbled, “I just…”

But Karma didn’t give him a chance to finish, giving into the urge to shove Nagisa to the ground. “Shut up. You can whine at me once you beat me in a fight.”

For a moment, Karma stared down at Nagisa, drinking in the sight of him crumpled on the ground at his feet. Then, when Nagisa scrambled to his feet, Karma whispered, “Come on. I’m ready; come at me.”

“Come on,” Karma hissed, shoving Nagisa’s shoulder.

 _Me, fight? Never,_ Nagisa had said to him once, a long time ago.

“Come _on!”_ Karma shouted, pushing him down by his head.

 _You’re such a smart guy, Karma,_ Nagisa had told him one time.

“ _Come on!_ ” Karma bellowed, forcing him down with a blow to the chest.

 _I don’t know what I would do without you_ , Nagisa had admitted so many days, hours, minutes before this moment.

 _Well,_ Karma thought caustically, _it seems to me like you did just fucking fine._

In a last-ditch effort, Karma grabbed Nagisa’s stupid tie, intending to slam their heads together. But Nagisa saw through him.

Nagisa _always_ saw right through him.

And just like that, Nagisa grabbed hold of Karma’s hand at his neck, bent his torso into a tight crunch, and quickly whipped both of his legs up into a choke hold around Karma’s neck.

Karma had just a moment to feel the cheap synthetic fabric of Nagisa’s cargo pants sliding around his neck like the shifting scales of an enormous snake, and then he was being dragged to the ground, airways constricted by Nagisa’s annoyingly precise attack.

“I’m really serious!” Nagisa yelled, flushed with exertion. His voice sounded like it was coming through a tunnel, echoing around the bony walls of Karma’s skull. “If you’re telling me to be clear about my feelings, then - “

Their classmates were screaming around them, but it seemed that they had forgotten - even that octopus knew that Karma was the best in the class at hand-to-hand. Nagisa was an idiot to step into Karma’s territory with this.

Focusing his energy into his core, he stood up from his stoop, bringing Nagisa up and clenching a fist in preparation for a punch that never connected.

Before he knew it, two of his classmates were dragging him away, capturing his arms. But Karma had tunnel vision at this point; all he could see was Nagisa’s eyes, full of fire as he fought to be released from Sugino’s punishing grip. All he could hear was a high-pitched whistling in his ears as he succumbed to the haze of anger. All he could taste was his own blood from when he’d bit his lip just seconds ago. And all he could think -

_Maim him._

“Oh, it’s only natural for middle-schoolers to fight,” a familiar voice said joyfully.

Every head in the clearing abruptly turned to face Koro-sensei, who had just stepped into the clearing with a gun in each tentacle.

“But this _is_ a class based on assassination. So what about settling this with weapons?” Koro-sensei proposed, the grin on his face as frozen as ever.

A hush descended over the class.

Karma exhaled, finally feeling the anger dissipate enough that he could take in his surroundings. He noticed immediately that Karasuma and Bitch-sensei were emerging from behind trees nearby, and that Koro-sensei had brought canisters of paintballs.

_Of course, that dumb octopus couldn’t let us have an argument without making it PG-rated._

Ultimately, the class was shooed to the tiny shack that served as a locker room, the boys and girls taking turns changing into their PE gear. Karma deliberately did not look at Nagisa the whole time that they stripped and dressed, too furious for words or...for anything, really.

All Karma knew was that there was no fucking way that he was _not_ winning this stupid fight.


	2. bellum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> bellum: the war

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy smokes, this took forever. Sorry for the huge gap between chapter 1 and chapter 2! This was very difficult to write, and an emotional rollercoaster. I hope I really captured the battle alright, this was definitely some practice for me in writing action scenes. *exhales* Please enjoy!

Karma adjusted his gloves, grim determination forcing his heartbeat to slow to a heavy, thudding rhythm. Looking around at his team members, he grew more and more certain of the game plan they would utilize. His team was, naturally, comprised of the students with the most blatant combat abilities, and it would be easy to exploit those.

“Your teams’ flags are about one hundred meters apart,” Karasuma said over the low murmur of the two teams slowly forming strategies. “I’ll be watching from the center for zombies, or those of you who try to keep playing after being hit. Otherwise, I’ll pretend not to know what direction you’re attacking from.”

Karasuma continued to speak about the technology that had been added to their gear, but Karma tuned him out. Against his better judgment, he looked over at the blue team, only to see that Nagisa was already staring back at him, an unreadable expression on his face. Karma felt his lip twitch up in annoyance, and he quickly turned away.

“Let’s get started,” Nakamura called, and the red team followed her off to their side.

She immediately directed Sugaya to start adding camouflage to the red team’s uniforms, but before she could say much more, Terasaka loudly demanded that he should take the lead.

Karma twirled his knife in his hand, considering their options. He thought it was likely that Isogai would take charge of the group - his charisma and casual leadership made him the obvious choice. Knowing the difference in group dynamics between the red and blue team, the blue team would definitely lean towards strong defense and taking out attackers in a slow push forward, maybe while sending a few people in under the radar with tricks to catch the red team off-guard.

 _We’ll just have to catch them first_ , Karma thought.

Karma was certain that Terasaka would want to blindly ram his way through to the blue team’s flag, lackeys at his side. But given the blue team’s likely strategy, it made more sense to have them form a small, but powerful, defensive unit to protect their own flag. It was also necessary to make an immediate attack from a secluded location, so that the red soldiers wouldn’t immediately be taken out in the process of surprise-attacking the blue soldiers - which, of course, meant snipers.

The only factor he couldn’t quite figure out, though, was Nagisa. Nagisa’s hand-to-hand combat skills weren’t the best, but he wasn’t great at long-range attacks either. With his nearly non-existent body mass, he wouldn’t make a good defender, and he didn’t have the speed or accuracy of a person on the offensive.

In all likelihood, he thought that Isogai might give Nagisa the job of a sneak attack - he was light on his feet and good at concealing his presence (as Karma knew all too well), so it made sense. However, he was sure that if he placed Mimura in a location where he could see the entire playing field, Nagisa wouldn’t be able to slip by completely unnoticed. But Karma couldn’t ignore the niggling feeling that this little battle would end with the two of them - _just_ the two of them.

_And how fitting would that be?_

“You’re oddly quiet,” Nakamura said, interrupted Karma’s planning. “Are you gonna drag your feet the whole time?”

Karma smiled to assuage her concern. “Don’t worry, I’m plenty awake now,” he replied, hopping down from the rock he’d been perched on. And after a slight pause, he added, “Nakamura - call Chiba and Hayami-san.”

And as he thought of how the match would start, he couldn’t help but grin.

“Ah, that’s more like your usual expression,” Nakamura said, laughing slightly. Then she did as she was bade, and Karma headed off to find the perfect location to observe the carnage.

* * *

A hush had settled over that stretch of forest. The students were all in their places, silent and unmoving. Even the wind seemed to be holding its breath.

“Both teams are ready?” Karasuma called. There was no response, so he cleared his throat and continued, “Well then...Let’s start. Let the E Class’s assassination survival game begin!”

Right off the bat, Karma heard the _pop-thump-grunt_ sounds which meant that Chiba and Hayami had taken out two students.

“ _Takebayashi-kun down,_ ” Hayami said curtly into her mic, as Terasaka laughed crudely into his.

Karma rolled his eyes at the extra noise, and Itona simply said over the shared line, “ _Confirmed._ ”

“ _Kataoka-san down!_ ” Okajima crowed a bit too loudly. _“We’ll get them one after another, right, Chiba? Just leave the protection of your surroundings to me.”_

Karma, who was close by to Chiba and Okajima, heard both the sound of Okajima speaking out loud and the sound of him speaking over the intercom, which meant that the enemy could hear him too. By the time he opened his mouth to tell him to pipe down, Kanzaki had swung down from the trees - _like something out of The Ring, but terrifyingly faster_ \- and taken them both out in a torrent of blue paint. Despite being on the other team, Karma couldn’t deny the beauty of her precise massacre.

“ _W-when did you get behind us?”_ Okajima asked, voice a bit shaky. “ _We didn’t notice you at all!_ ”

Even the unflappable Chiba looked stunned. “ _I’d forgotten about it,_ ” he said under his breath, only audible over the intercom. “ _Kanzaki-san was the master of an online FPS._ ”

Kanzaki said something to the two of them that Karma couldn’t quite hear, but that was alright. He didn’t need to hear her to take her out.

He moved into an attacking position as she dashed just out of sight before somersaulting back into his line of vision so that she could take out Sugaya, who yelped as he fell back, splattered with blue. As he watched, he could see that she was attempting to take a path around the outside to surprise their defense from behind.

Once more, he couldn’t help but admire Kanzaki’s tenacity and battle skill, but Karma knew that this was the end of the line for her.

As Kanzaki ran past his tree, Karma snatched her by her wrist, watching as her air gun clattered to the forest floor. “I forgot that you’d polished your skills on the virtual battlefield,” he said quietly into her ear as he slipped out his knife, which dripped pleasingly . She writhed furiously in his grip, chest heaving with the effort of trying to escape. “You defeating Chiba was not part of my calculations, but once I realized where you were going, it became quite easy for me to ambush you.”

At that, Kanzaki seemed to accept her fate, going slack with a small smile on her face. “You really have a flair for the dramatic, don’t you, Karma?” she said, with a kind laugh.

Karma drew the knife across her neck, then, in one violent slash of red. She collapsed to the ground as he released her from his grip, and Karma swung back up to sit atop his tree branch. Speaking into the comm, he said, “Can everyone hear me, red team? I’m taking control now.”

Karma waited for the round of _roger_ s from his teammates before beginning execution of his plan.

“Mimura,” he said quietly, swinging down from the tree as Kanzaki stood and made her way back to where Koro-sensei and Bitch-sensei were waiting. “You can see the hill to the left of Karasuma-sensei, right? Head to that position.”

“Okay!” Mimura chirped back, and then Karma heard his breathing change as he moved.

“Don’t fight the enemies, even if you see them,” Karma continued. “Get to your new position without anyone noticing you.”

Then Karma scrolled through the list of his team members in his mind as he walked, quickly settling on Terasaka and his goons. “Terasaka and his idiotic friends - defend the position from the back of the rock that looks like a face. If they get through there, we’re fucked, so defend it to your death.”

Over the comm, Karma heard rustling, and then, “I guess we’re useless after all,” followed by what sounded suspiciously like a blow landing and Terasaka whisper-shouting, “Shut up!”

A few moments later, Mimura clicked back in. “I’m at the designated position, Karma,” he said under his breath, still huffing a bit.

He imagined Mimura, plain but attentive, scanning the field for intel to pass on to Karma. At first glance, he didn’t seem all that useful, but Karma knew that Mimura had a keen eye, and that his appearance made him great at hiding.

Karma smiled slightly and stopped when he reached their team’s flag, heaving himself up onto a large rock. “Good. From there, you should have an eagle’s eye view - tell me how the enemy is moving, and then I’ll direct the team.”

Before Karma could make his next call, Mimura spoke up, sounding a bit breathless. “Sugino and Fuwa are wide open, right in front of Hazama!”

Karma grinned, then. _It’s almost too easy,_ he thought. _The enemy will be down in flames before they know it._ “Good job, Mimura,” he praised. “Well, then...Next up is Hazama-san. Advance.”

In lieu of giving a normal response, Hazama clicked her mic on, and a low, alarming hiss filtered through the comm system, followed by a quiet rustling sound. Then, screams and yelps of surprise and fear sounded out around the battlefield as several people went down.

“Sugino-kun down! Fuwa-san down!” Mimura said, before continuing a little more quickly, “Yada-san and Isogai-kun are retaliating, and I think that she’s been - ”

Hazama made a quiet, aggravated sound over the comms before saying, “You used me as a sacrifice...I’ll curse you when the time comes, Karma.”

“I look forward to it,” he replied with a small smirk. “Now. Everyone, listen up. The balance of this war is shifting in our favor, and the enemy is falling into chaos. Okano.”

“Yes!” she responded, sounding perfectly in control.

“Okano-san is currently in a close-quarters battle with Kurahashi-san!” Mimura said, and Karma pictured the conflict in his mind.

It was likely that Okano was using her speed and agility to keep herself from ever being completely in Kurahashi’s line of sight.

“Use random close attacks from above her, Okano,” Karma ordered. “I doubt that she’ll be able to follow your movements, given that they likely prepared for a firefight.”

Kurahashi’s high-pitched shriek echoed around the field just a moment later, and Okano answered, “Target down.”

Karma was about to ask Mimura if he saw any other issues, but Mimura suddenly called, “Okano-san, Kayano-chan is right on your tail!”

Karma’s eyes narrowed, wondering. He knew that Kayano had hidden powers that had only just recently come to light, but he hadn’t considered that they would make her quite so agile.

_It’s a shame, but...Okano isn’t a large part of the grand plan anyways._

_Unless…_

“Is there anyone close to Okano, Mimura?” he asked. “We may be able to save her yet.”

“Kimura-kun!” Mimura hissed. “If you go towards your left, you might be able to catch Kayano-chan off-guard from behind.”

“Roger!” Kimura confirmed, and then sucked in a huge breath.

Karma waited for news, tapping an impatient foot on the forest floor. He was certain it would work out. Even that tentacle-brained bitch wouldn’t be able to withstand the might of the two fastest runners in the class.

 _Alright, even I can admit that that was a bit much,_ Karma thought to himself.

But Karma really detested the way that she hung all over Nagisa at all hours of the day. It seemed that her feelings were obvious to everyone _but_ Nagisa, and knowing Nagisa, he’d never really grasp the fact that someone could have a crush on him. As ever, Nagisa was blind to the world around him.

Before Karma could continue any further down that familiar path, Kimura said brightly, “Kayano-chan down!”

“Great,” Karma replied. “Now retreat. I’m sure they have strong defense farther in, so we’ll need to regroup and attack as a unit.”

“Got it,” Okano replied, and Karma assumed that Kimura had gotten the message.

It was then that Nakamura approached from Karma’s right. He wasn’t quite sure what she had been doing all of this time, but he supposed he could use her now that she was here.

“Mimura,” he said next, before he addressed Nakamura. “Can you see anything else?”

Mimura hummed for a few moments and then gasped. “Ah, Hara-san is wide open in a clearing. I’m...not quite sure what she’s doing, actually. Just...sitting there, it looks like. And...I can see almost everyone else, mostly just talking, but I can’t find Nagisa-kun or Okuda-san.”

Instantly, Karma realized the reasoning behind Hara’s strange behavior. “Hara-san is probably hiding a trap; it would be best for everyone to avoid her,” he advised, but he was too late.

Mimura laughed despite himself, and his following words were interspersed with chuckles. “You were right! Kimura and Okano just got caught in her and Maehara’s trap. They’re down.”

Karma sighed, annoyed. “They got too cocky and got caught,” he grumbled. “I hate it when people don’t do what I want.”

“No choice, then,” Nakamura replied, shrugging off her sweater and pulling up her hood. “The second-in-command will have to enter the fray and end this mess.”

Karma then turned to Nakamura, faintly aware of the _pop-pop-pop_ of paintball guns in the distance. She was stretching, like she was about to set off at a run. “Nakamura,” he said, a bit surprised. “Are you planning to go on the attack unarmed? Where are your weapons?”

She scoffed at him, turning back with a hand on her hip. “I’m gonna use the idiot trio,” she replied, pointing in the general direction of the rock that served as a defensive landmark. “That’s the reason you sent them there, right?”

 _She really is a lot smarter than she pretends to be_ , he thought with a slight, approving smile. “I knew you’d notice.” When she just grinned at him in response, he prompted, “Well, then…”

With that, she gave a mocking little salute before dashing off.

With a jolt, Karma thought of Nagisa. He was one of the few people that Karma hadn’t heard the position of yet, and potentially the most dangerous person in this battle.

“Mimura,” he nearly shouted. “Find Nagisa. I can’t accurately predict his movements, so I need to know where he is.”

“Sure, Karma,” Mimura responded. “Hayami-san is mobilizing, Itona-kun is figuring out the drone, and Hara-san’s down, by the way. And - “

His voice cut off suddenly, and Karma rolled his eyes. _That idiot was spotted._

_Well, everything is according to plan, regardless. Nakamura and the idiots are in place, Hayami hasn’t been found, and Itona is following directions. I knew that this situation would inevitably happen, and the plan was based on that. We killed Takebayashi and Kataoka right at the start to leave the enemy without any tactical options, and they’ve just been playing it by ear since then._

_We’ve got this._

“Hayami. Itona. What’s your status?” he asked, to get a clearer picture.

Itona clicked in and then made a frustrated noise. “I don’t think that I’ll be able to use the drone today, Karma-kun. It’s too fickle.”

Karma waved a hand before realizing that Itona couldn’t see it. “Don’t worry about it, then. Just keep an eye out for anyone going after Hayami-san. We don’t want to lose our one remaining sniper.”

_It’s probably for the best that Chiba went out first, anyways. Hayami’s range and accuracy are lower than Chiba’s, but she has much better balance and agility. This terrain, which is full of sturdy trees, should be perfect for her._

“Maehara-kun, Isogai-kun, Okuda-san: all in my sights,” she said in monotone.

Karma imagined Isogai’s thought process. _It’s likely that he’s realized by now that Hayami had half of the playing field within her range. The logical next step is to take her out with a large group._

“Hayami-san, Itona,” Karma addressed his teammates. “A large group of the enemy will be heading for you very soon. You need to either slow them down or eradicate them - if you get the chance.”

“Roger,” the two of them replied in unison.

“And Nakamura,” Karma continued. “Once the gun battle starts, I want you to rush their base in one quick move.”

“Got it!” she responded, and then she clicked off the line.

 _Everything’s going according to plan,_ Karma thought. _But where’s Nagisa?_

Karma knew that Nagisa would attack from where they would least expect it. But he was having trouble reasoning out the situation, because as he tried to think as Nagisa would, he just found himself getting frustrated and angry.

 _Even I have to admit that I lost it earlier,_ Karma thought ruefully. _I suppose that now that I’m viewing him as an enemy rather than...whatever the hell he is, I can deconstruct my reaction a little bit more. I -_

“Karma,” Nakamura said, firmly. “The battle’s started. We’re going in.”

“Okay, good luck!” Karma said over the mic. He shifted positions, moving to the other side of the rock so that he could observe the results.

The group of four took off at a sprint, but Karma’s eyes were drawn from their rapid movement by a shift off to their right. The longer he stared, mouth falling open in surprise, the closer the figure moved, until Karma could just make out a weapon in each hand and a familiar svelte body shape appearing to descend from the air.

_The strategies -_

_The defense tactics -_

_The attack maneuvers -_

Karma reached for his hood, his mouth opening to shout a warning to his teammates, but -

_They were all for shit -_

\- he was too late; the words died in his throat as the figure finally came close enough to attack, taking two rapid shots and slicing twice with his knife before his feet even touched the ground.

Like an angel - no, a god - of death, decked out in camouflage, he swept down from the heavens and took out the remainder of Karma’s team in one fell swoop.

And, meeting Karma’s eyes from that distance, Nagisa smiled that deadly smile, and Karma knew that he had lost this battle.

“Karma!” Nakamura shouted. “We’ve been taken out by Nagisa. He appeared out of nowhere!”

“No,” Karma replied, still in awe. “He’s been using Karasuma as his camouflage the entire time.”

_And like the snake he is, he waited for his prey to stumble into his territory before striking with deadly force._

“I’m down, Karma-kun,” Hayami said, her cool, calm voice sounding unusually ruffled. “But Itona just took out Ya - And Maehara-kun just took down Itona-kun. The red team is done for.”

“Not just yet,” Karma replied. “Let Maehara come. I’d like to see him try.”

Like he was on cue, Maehara came careening out of the forest at a sprint, crushing leaves with each step as he released a truly idiotic battle cry.

Without sound or hesitation, Karma brought his hand down in one deadly stab, splattering red paint all over Maehara’s pretty face like a cartoonish mockery of a violent death.

“Thanks for making all that noise, Maehara,” Karma said, turning to face his true enemy in this battle. “Let’s finish this, Nagisa-kun!” he called out.

But silence followed; Nagisa had vanished once again.

Karma glanced between his paintball gun and his faux knife before ultimately deciding that his best chance at taking out the enemy would be to rely on his superior skills in close combat. Setting the gun against the rock, Karma leapt down from his perch, shouting, “Hey, Nagisa-kun! Drop your gun and get out here - we’ll decide things with these!”

Karma brandished his knife and strode forward, a huge, goading smile on his face.

“However you look at it, we’re the last two people alive. If you just want to stare at me from the bushes all day, that’s fine,” he said, to stifled laughter from their classmates. “But I think that we might as well decide on the winning team with a good old one-on-one tumble.”

Karma was no idiot, and he definitely knew Nagisa better than anyone else in this forest - maybe even on this planet. _This_ was the way to draw the snake out of hiding. The pressure to be on everyone’s good side was too much for Nagisa to resist, so he would put himself at a disadvantage _just_ so everyone would take him seriously.

“What the - just _shoot_ him, Nagisa!” somebody shouted from the platform off to the side of the battlefield. “Look, he’s just walking around defenseless!”

Once more, silence descended, and Karma waited, hands on his hips in an exaggeratedly casual pose. Moments later, Nagisa emerged from the brush, his face tense with nerves and empty hands twitching at his sides.

Karma stared at Nagisa as he shucked his jacket, somehow feeling that this whole situation was incredibly surreal. _Finally,_ he would get to take on the boy of his nightmares ( _of his dreams_ ), show him that he was wrong about everything, that he wasn’t as untouchable as he appeared to be.

 _He was so harmless_ , Karma thought to himself.

He imagined Nagisa the way he had been when they’d met - all soft, kind, blue-eyed innocence and a gaze that had always looked up (and _up_ ) at Karma, as if he were a god. He loved that admiration, _craved_ it. As the class troublemaker, everyone had given him a wide berth, and Karma had found himself stifling himself - his words, his hands, his mind - when he was around people. But Nagisa made him not want to be careful, and that had made him a question mark in Karma’s mind.

 _Now that I think about it_ , Karma thought, more certain the more he thought about it, _the fact that I kept Nagisa at a certain distance probably meant that there was a part of him that made me uneasy, even before that incident._

Karma could recall that fateful day with startling clarity - that moment when a friendly poke in the back had felt like the quick, violent stab of a sword, piercing through his abdomen and sending his blood splattering onto his tray in truly gruesome Pollock style.

“Over here, Karma,” he’d said with that small smile that had always ( _still did, if he were being honest_ ) made Karma’s heart beat just a little bit faster. “Didn’t you see me?”

 _He made me vulnerable. He made me_ want _to be vulnerable. But there’s something about him...I_ know _I can’t be vulnerable around him. There’s something about him that, if I let it, could kill me when I least expect it._

Even now, as he watched Nagisa stretch and adjust his gloves, his gaze was slowly shifting from nervous trepidation to careful calculation. He was feeling Karma out, judging and prying.

_He’d always looked like such a nice, honest guy. I always thought that that little bit of anxiety I’d had around him was all my imagination. And yet...Nagisa always had something mysterious about him. I wanted to wrench it out of him and beat the shit out of it, just to be safe. Whatever that mysterious thing was, it was scary. Even if I beat him in a fight, or if I got better grades than him, it didn’t mean anything. It was a completely different issue._

_Before I knew it, we had drifted apart._

_But now, for the first time ever, as third-years, we’re standing together as equals on the assassination stage. And this is my chance to get my point across to you, Nagisa._

Karma looked up at Nagisa, only to see Nagisa looking at him as well.

_I’ll make you surrender to me._

Straight off the bat, the both of them went for the same jab, resulting in their forearms slamming against each other in a bruising block. Karma dug his heels into the dirt and leaned forward to shove Nagisa back, but Nagisa met him, push for push.

“I’m gonna kill him!” Karma snarled in Nagisa’s face, teeth gritted in anger.

“I’m gonna save him!” Nagisa shouted back, his eyes afire with determination.

Karma abruptly leaned back, setting Nagsa off-balance, and then he slammed his foot into Nagisa’s abdomen, throwing him backwards. Nagisa hit the ground hard several meters away, but he pressed his fingers into the dry leaves during that brief moment of contact and managed to land solidly on his feet.

As Nagisa shifted his stance, the two of them circling each other, Karma noted the Nagisa had not reached for the other knife strapped to his left thigh.

 _I’ll have to be quick, but I’ll also have to be cautious,_ Karma thought.

With no warning or change in stance, Karma broke into a sprint, slashing at Nagisa’s face with his left hand once he was in range. Nagisa ducked out of the way, but Karma quickly spun around and swiped at him again, only for Nagisa to drop into a half-split to avoid it.

Nagisa then went on the offensive, jabbing repeatedly at Karma’s head, but Karma just smirked at him and danced backwards. Nagisa’s mouth quirked downwards in frustration, but he relented, stepping back for a moment.

It was only thanks to the fact that Karma knew all of Nagisa’s tells that he caught the faint quiver in his thighs that meant he was about to jump. Karma, who was in a crouch, brought his right arm up _almost_ too slow to block the aerial strike ( _and how the_ hell _did he jump that high?_ ), and he stumbled back _just_ in time to avoid the drops of paint that flew from Nagisa’s knife.

 _Have to be careful when I block his attacks, or else I might be sprayed by the paint_ , Karma noted.

It was too easy for Karma to get caught up in the heat of Nagisa’s gaze, the intermittent tension and relaxation of his body, the shortness of his breath caused by exertion - and completely forget that he was supposed to be attacking with _paint._

Karma swept his foot up once again, landing a glancing blow to Nagisa’s stomach as well as obscuring his vision with leaves.

In that split second between when Nagisa stepped back to avoid the leaves and when he opened his eyes once more, Karma jumped and swung his leg around in a vicious roundhouse kick that slammed into Nagisa’s chest. Karma grinned as Nagisa cried out in pain and went flying into a pile of leaves.

Karma knew he couldn’t give him a moment’s respite. So, dashing over, he planted his foot firmly on the ground and used all of his body weight to stab violently at Nagisa’s head, but Nagisa rolled away just in time.

 _Then_ , Nagisa grabbed Karma’s knife out of the ground, threw it a good distance away, and flipped up into a standing position all in one complicated maneuver that had Karma’s head swirling for a moment. Nagisa then launched himself forward, going for a direct stab to Karma’s face.

_You underestimate me, Nagisa._

Karma estimated the trajectory of Nagisa’s arm, and then he stepped forward to meet Nagisa well before he meant for the stab to hit, slamming their skulls together in an incredibly brutal headbutt. Karma couldn’t restrain the wicked grin on his face as his eyes met Nagisa’s, relishing in that potent moment of agony when Nagisa’s face cringed inwards and his eyes squeezed shut.

The scandalized yells of their classmates only registered as a dull roar in Karma’s ears. All he could really hear was the crackling brown leaves under their boots and Nagisa’s high moan of discomfort as he fell backward and brought his hands to his forehead. Karma noted with satisfaction that Nagisa had lost his knife in the scuffle.

Karma watched for the moment Nagisa reached for his second knife, and as soon as it happened, he threw an elbow directly into his cheek. Shaking out his hand, Karma said lowly, “You won’t be able to draw it; I’ll hit you every time you lower your guard.”

Despite Karma’s pointed words, Nagisa reached once more for his second knife. Karma grabbed him by one of his ponytails and slammed his knee into Nagisa’s stomach yet again, which Nagisa responded to with a choked grunt. “I’ll make you lose consciousness, Nagisa-kun,” Karma said, laughing, “And then give you a mercy killing once you’re out!”

For a moment, Karma was distracted as he lifted Nagisa back up to eye level. Having one hand in his hair and the other on his shoulder, watching Nagisa look up at him, face red and sweaty and bruising and bleeding ( _so imperfect_ ), Karma had to make a strong conscious effort not to push Nagisa down to his knees and -

Nagisa’s fist abruptly slammed into Karma’s nose, and _fuck_ , it hurt in all the right ways. He could feel heat pulsing from his nose as the blood vessels burst, and he grinned down at Nagisa. “Is that it?” he whispered.

In lieu of a strong blow, Karma backhanded Nagisa across the face just for the hell of it, perversely enjoying the way his head snapped to the side. Nagisa retaliated immediately by flipping into a kick that landed solidly against the back of Karma’s neck.

Karma chuckled yet again and dove back in, teasing and goading Nagisa with light blows to his face and chest. All the while, Nagisa landed punch after kick after punch on Karma’s thighs, face, and stomach, his face full of determination - and confusion.

After this went on for a while, Karma threw a no-holds-barred uppercut to Nagisa’s jaw, throwing him backwards. As he fell in a tremendous backbend, Karma lifted his right leg as far into the air as it could possibly go before stomping it into the side of Nagisa’s head. Karma stood over Nagisa for a few moments then, chest heaving with effort as he stared down at his fallen opponent.

Karma didn’t let himself feel anything in that moment.

Instead, he stepped away from Nagisa’s prone body, walked over to his discarded knife, returned, and then allowed himself to absorb the moment.

 _I’ll never have another place like this class - this class where I can act on my feelings so freely. But I_ will _kill you, Koro-sensei,_ Karma thought as he spared a glance for their esteemed teacher. _Because it’s the right thing to do._

Finally, _finally,_ Karma leaned back over Nagisa.

_But the both of us know that this isn’t really about Koro-sensei, don’t we?_

When Karma looked closely at him, though, it was clear that he wasn’t out for the count just yet. His breaths were still coming too quickly, and his arms tensed in preparation for movement. Karma had to act fast.

As soon as the thought came to him, Nagisa’s hands flew up and together in his signature paralyzing clap. Having anticipated it, Karma bit down into his tongue just in time, the pain keeping his body from completely succumbing to the initial shock. Still, the surprise prompted him to loosen his grip on his knife, so Karma found himself semi-frozen in a highly awkward position as Nagisa sped towards him, finally drawing the knife out of his thigh holster.

 _Nagisa, I will draw that part of you out  - that talent you have and I don’t - and smash it to pieces,_ Karma thought. _I_ will _win._

Nagisa was coming towards him with a bloodlust so potent that Karma almost felt as though it were emanating from the knife in an acidic black cloud.

_If I can just move enough to slap the knife out of his hand, he won’t have a way to kill me._

Karma felt his muscles tense, and if he could _just -_

Nagisa carelessly tossed his knife towards Karma -

_What - ?_

Almost automatically, Karma’s gaze tracked the knife, and he smacked it out of the way just in case -

_He discarded - ?_

Nagisa wrapped his arms around Karma’s neck in a tight, gripping embrace, taking them both down to the packed dirt with an anticlimactic _whump_.

_No...bloodlust?_

Karma felt his arms twitch in the direction of Nagisa’s back, tempted to return the hug. Being pressed so close to him so suddenly in the middle of an adrenaline and emotion-fueled fight was wreaking _hell_ on Karma’s self-control.

But what initially appeared to be a strangely-timed hug very quickly became deadly when Nagisa pressed his arm against Karma’s neck in an extremely uncomfortable way.

 _Flying triangle choke,_ Karma realized as it became slowly harder to breathe. _Very creative._

“I will _make_ you listen to me, Karma-kun!” Nagisa said hoarsely into his ear.

Karma struggled, arms flailing against the ground, against Nagisa, through the air. All the while, he could feel his movements grow weaker and weaker.

 _He’s using my own tactics against me by aiming to make me admit defeat_.

Karma was furious; he pummeled Nagisa’s back and side and stomped on the forest floor, but nothing he did convinced Nagisa to let him go.

Karma thought wildly, _At this rate, I’ll fall -_

And suddenly, Karma’s scrambling hand met the familiar rubbery material of those stupid Anti-Sensei knives. He held it up above Nagisa’s back, feeling suddenly as though he were at a crossroads.

 _Me? Fight?_ Nagisa had said, tucking his long hair behind his ears with a nervous laugh. _Not for my life._

Karma turned to his right, just able to see Nagisa’s face. He was flushed, teeth gritted, and tears leaked out of his clenched-shut eyes. The anger and frustration in his expression was palpable, but Karma’s heart wasn’t registering it that way. All he could think was _beautiful - beautiful - beautiful -_ with every heartbeat.

 _Well…_ Nagisa had continued after that. He had glanced speculatively down at Karma’s two latest, battered victims as if thinking more deeply about his own words. _Maybe...if my life depended on it, that would be a completely different story._

Karma knew that if he took Nagisa out now, after he had showed so much determination, grit, and power, the class would never respect Karma’s perspective. All they would hear from him would be the cruel words of the bastard who put that _look_ in Nagisa’s eyes.

And as he laid there in the dirt, Nagisa’s warmth and softness pressed so close to him, all of Nagisa’s attention on him and him alone, he couldn’t help but feel like it was far too late. Everything about Nagisa that Karma had been scared of _\- that demon inside of him, that part of him that always made me want to fall at his feet, to expose myself_ \- was right here, squeezing him into unconsciousness and crying because he had to do it. Nagisa wasn’t some mysterious, frightening monster. Karma wasn’t afraid to be around Nagisa because he could kill him in his sleep.

Karma was just in love with him, and he felt so _stupid_ that it had taken _this much_ for him to realize it.

Karma was _stupidly_ in love with the blue-haired idiot currently clinging to his neck, and if Nagisa felt so strongly about saving Koro-sensei that, to him, it was life-or-death, Karma had no choice but to relent.

He sighed, stabbing the knife into the ground next to him and patting Nagisa’s back gently to tap out.

“That’s it, I surrender,” Karma choked out. “I lose, Nagisa.”

But evidently, Nagisa was quite caught up in the moment. His grip didn’t ease a millimeter, and he hissed desperately into Karma’s ear, “Please, just listen to me…”

Karma dimly heard Karasuma call the match, and their classmates flooded the clearing, shouting various words of celebration as Nagisa finally loosened his grasp.

“I-I won…?” Nagisa said quietly, rolling off of Karma, clearly pained. “Against Karma-kun?”

“My opponent was a barehanded little animal who proved that he had guts,” Karma admitted, turning away. “If I’d just used the knife to win, no one would have accepted it.”

Nagisa turned to face him, but Karma avoided his gaze. He couldn’t help the flush on his face, and he didn’t want Nagisa to see it. “I couldn’t stab you, and I couldn’t escape you. You forced me into a situation where I had to surrender. Winning through hand-to-hand without a knife was the best chance you had of killing me.”

Flopping back onto the ground, Karma sighed out, “You totally defeated me. You want to save Koro-sensei, right? I’ll hear you out.”

At the ensuing silence, Karma looked over to Nagisa, who definitely had a deer-in-the-headlights sort of look. His hair was a mess of leaves, his fair skin was scraped and swollen, and his eyebrows had disappeared behind his bangs. Inexplicably, Karma simultaneously wanted to laugh _and_ felt his dick twitch.

To cover it up, Karma coughed and said, “Don’t give me that dumbass look with your messed-up face. You look like a mouse caught in an epidemic.”

_Not my best insult._

Nagisa’s face immediately fell from awed to abashed, and he patted his hair down self-consciously. “How can you insult people so easily? _Jeez,_ Karma-kun.”

Karma coughed again, feeling uncomfortable. “Uh…” he started, and then he paused before going on. “Think we can drop the honorifics now? It...feels weird to keep the - _kun_ after that fight.”

Nagisa looked lost, understandably. Karma hadn’t entirely thought that sentence through before he’d said it. _Shit._

“Changing the way we speak to each other now?” Nagisa said, with a bit of an awkward chuckle. “I think it feels weird to do _that_.”

Karma pushed himself up into a standing position, groaning quietly at the aches _everywhere._ “Then I’ll just do it alone,” he replied, extending a hand. “You cool with that, Nagisa?”

For a moment, Nagisa stared up at him with wide, admiring eyes. It was _that_ look - the one he had missed so much, however much he'd wanted to deny it.

For that moment, Karma had the ridiculous urge to kiss the stupid look off of Nagisa’s face.

Then, Nagisa smiled and grasped Karma’s hand, and the moment was broken. “Oh, fine. Sure, Karma,” he said.

Karma yanked him up to eye level, and Nagisa looked away for just a second, his nose scrunching up. Something was definitely there, but Karma couldn’t _quite_ pinpoint it. Before Karma could figure it out, Nagisa mumbled, “Were you pulling your punches? Your attacks were actually kinda weak - “

Karma yanked him into a headlock, and Nagisa cut himself off, releasing a litany of _ow ow ow_. Karma just laughed and said, “I was just going easy on you.”

Nagisa looked up at him with an uncharacteristic smirk and replied with a mischievous look in his eyes, “You don’t need to go easy on me, Karma.”

Karma’s jaw dropped slightly, and he took great pains not to let his mind wander, at that. _Was Nagisa - ?_ His half-formed reply was cut off when Nakamura appeared from nowhere, slinging an arm over Nagisa’s shoulders and pinching his cheek.

“Way to go, Nagisa-chan!” Nakamura said, grinning. “That was very impressive.”

Nagisa was drawn away after that, and the class swarmed around him, giving their congratulations and expressing concern over his injuries. Karma lingered around the edges, joking and jibing at the people who approached him, but his mind was elsewhere.

As they finally headed back towards the building, the class buzzing and chattering with ideas, Karma ran a hand through his hair, wincing as the movement caused aches in several places. Despite the pain, as Karma glanced up towards the front of the group, where he could see Nagisa with an arm slung over Sugino’s shoulders, he felt a faint clenching in his chest.

_I swear, Nagisa will be the death of me._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I put a little joke in there. Anyone notice? Let me know in the comments if you noticed. *wink wink*
> 
> Aaaaannnyway, love you guys, thanks for reading, and I will attempt to put out the third chapter (the resolving chapter, which I have not decided yet if it'll include smut) post-haste.


	3. post bellum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> post bellum: after the war

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shockingly, no smut this time. Just fluff. Good practice for me, cause my aro ass doesn't know wtf romance should look like, lol. *clears throat* Anywho, enjoy. Hopefully. Sorry for shortness, but I didn't feel like it needed much.

“Now, don’t get up to too much trouble! You two relax, and I’ll be back at the end of the period to check in on you!” Koro-sensei gave the two of them each a look - Karma would say a _stern_ look, but Koro-sensei’s face didn’t work that way - before retreating from the room in a flurry of bending yellow limbs.

Karma looked with annoyance at the ice pack in his right hand. He hated admitting weakness, and the necessity of icing his wounds fell firmly under that umbrella. But Nagisa had _not_ pulled his punches, and Karma wasn’t a big fan of having his nose completely swell up over the next few days. So, tilting his head back, Karma pressed the cold compress against his nose with an irritated grunt.

Karma then heard a stifled sound from his right, and when he turned around, Nagisa was covering his mouth with one hand, giggling to himself as he looked at Karma. Karma wanted to be annoyed, but seeing Nagisa there, blue eyes crinkled up at the corners - hair all askew from the fight and the thick layer of bandages wrapped around his head - as he attempted to hold back his grin, Karma found himself laughing too.

The two of them sat together on the bench in the janitor’s closet-turned-clinic, laughing their asses off at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation they’d put themselves in.

After a good half minute, Karma wiped joyful tears from his eyes and dropped the cold compress onto the bench. He chanced another look at Nagisa, and wasn’t surprised to find him looking back.

“For someone so smart, you can really be dumb, Karma,” Nagisa said, his face still light with amusement.

Karma couldn’t help it. He leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss on Nagisa’s lips, pulling back to whisper, “I know,” against his cheek.

Then Karma threw himself backwards, realizing what he had just done with mounting horror - _maybe Nagisa had hit him harder than he’d thought?_

But before Karma could get up and begin to apologize, likely with a stinging joke about Nagisa’s own intelligence, Nagisa reached out and yanked Karma back towards him by the collar of his dirtied gym uniform. He then gently thumped their foreheads together, looking Karma straight in the eyes, and said quietly, “It’s okay, dummy.”

It was a rare moment - one of those times when Karma was truly lost for words. In lieu of responding, Karma closed his eyes and exhaled deeply. Then, Nagisa suddenly reached up around his neck and squeezed him gently, a sweeter parody of the chokehold from their earlier battle. The two of them pressed together in a quiet, meaningful embrace, and Karma pretended not to notice the gentle quaking of Nagisa’s body against his as he cried.

After a few minutes spent like that, Nagisa finally gathered his composure. He leaned back, eyes red and shining with tears, and whispered, “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do this.”

Karma wasn’t given a chance to reply, as Nagisa then launched himself forward, gripping Karma’s neck on either side and taking Karma’s lips in a searing kiss.

Karma didn’t back off this time; he immediately leaned into the kiss. It was perfect, everything he’d ever imagined - Nagisa’s plush, slightly chapped lips, the pained noise he made when Karma’s tongue passed over a split in his flesh, the faint taste of iron as blood seeped sluggishly from the reopened wound on Karma’s tongue.

Karma was well aware that it sounded like a cliche, but it really felt like his world had just realigned.

Nagisa suddenly grew bolder, bodily shoving Karma down to lay against the bench. Karma laughed as he thumped against the flimsy wood, his heart light in his chest, and when Nagisa leaned back in, Karma took the initiative, surging up to meet him halfway with a deep, searching kiss.

Karma relished in the broken little sounds Nagisa made when Karma bit harshly down on his lower lips, his hands wandering down of their own accord to grasp at Nagisa’s ass. Nagisa gasped into his mouth, hips twitching forward, and Karma grinned in response.

Before things could go any further, though, Karma pulled back, wanting to clear the air. They’d just beat the _shit_ out of each other, and no amount of kissing was going to fix that.

“Nagisa, you have to understand that - “ he started, but Nagisa just laughed at him, his eyes crinkling up in that adorable way again.

“You don’t have to say anything, Karma,” Nagisa interrupted. “I love you, too. And I forgive you,” he said so casually, so comfortably, as if the past two years were dust in the wind.

Karma’s mouth snapped shut in surprise, and Nagisa took advantage of the moment to land another peck on Karma’s lips before settling comfortably against his chest.

 _As usual, he sees_ right  _through me._

Craning his neck slightly to see the top of Nagisa’s head, Karma smiled softly and whispered, “Yeah.”

* * *

Forty-five minutes later, Karma woke up with a deep ache in his back and a _fucking bitch_ of a headache, but as he looked down at Nagisa, who was wrapped around Karma's torso like an octopus and drooling slightly as he slept, Karma couldn't be mad.

 _Love,_  Karma thought ruefully to himself. _It makes idiots of us all._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, friends. :*


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